Sue Williams

Sue Williams and her siblings learned to mold clay from their mother, Rose Williams, one of the most influential contemporary Navajo potters. Williams literally makes her pieces from the ground up. She digs and prepares the clay herself, constructs each individual pot or vase entirely by hand, and fires them in a traditional Navajo outdoor pit. To finish her vessels, Williams applies a thin veneer of melted pine pitch, which adds strength and enhances the color variations that result from the firing.